Second meeting of special representatives of Armenia and Turkey took place

YEREVAN, February 24, /ARKA/. Special representatives for the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey, respectively, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kılıç held a meeting today (February 24) in Vienna, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said.

It said the special representatives confirmed that the ultimate goal of the negotiations is to achieve full normalization between Armenia and Turkey, as agreed during their first meeting in Moscow.

They exchanged views on possible concrete steps that can be mutually undertaken to that end and reiterated their agreement to continue the process without preconditions.

The day before, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking to journalists, expressed satisfaction with Armenia's desire to normalize relations with Turkey.

"This region needs peace, stability and prosperity... The president of Azerbaijan also considers it useful," Erdogan said.

As for the position of the Armenian side, about a month ago Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not rule out that the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey could be achieved by the end of this year.

"The whole international community is helping Armenia and Turkey normalize relations: Russia, the EU, the U.S., the countries of the region," Pashinyan said.

The special envoys for normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey held their first meeting on January 14 in Moscow.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the meeting was held in a positive and constructive atmosphere. The special envoys exchanged preliminary views on the Armenian-Turkish dialogue normalization process.

Although Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia’s independence from the former Soviet Union, the countries have no diplomatic ties and Turkey shut down their common border in 1993, in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkey also refuses to recognize the Armenian genocide, committed during 1915-1923 when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman government. The overwhelming majority of historians widely view the event as genocide.

In 2009, Ankara and Yerevan reached an agreement in Zurich to establish diplomatic relations and to open their joint border, but Turkey later said it could not ratify the deal until Armenia withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 2020, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh. -0-